SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

60 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Kolbeinsson, and whose mother was Gu6nin, the daughter
of Bishop Brandr Ssemundarson.
porlinm karlsefni = Gui'lrli'lr
I
I
I
Snorri
porbjorn
I
I I I
Run6lfr = Hallfrtor porgeirr p6runn = Gils
I I
,
I I
Bishop porlakr Sremundr = Yngvildr
IIIS-II33
I
I
Bishop Brandr porny
(II63-1201) I
Grmr
I 1-
Cuornn = Arn6rr Sigmundr
I I
Halld6ra = ]6n from Svlnafell
I
Bishop Brandr
(12 63- r 264)
I
1
Bishop Bjorn
(II47-II62)
It is very strange that the author of the Saga of Eirikr
did not trace the genealogy to Bishop Brandr J6nsson as
he did to the other bishops, but very understandable in the
case of the author of the Saga ofthe Greenlanders, if it was
written before 1263. This neglect on the part of the
author of the Saga of Eirikr can only be explained on the
assumption that he got the genealogies from some work
without realising their nature fully or noticing that it was
necessary to add the name of the fourth bishop who was
descended from Gu6ri6r. It is most probable that his
source was the Saga of the Greenlanders, for there are no
longer any grounds for the assumption that there existed
an older Saga of Eirikr.
It is possible to advance further arguments on other
grounds for this dating of the Saga of the Greenlanders.
The Saga of Eirikr states that Leifr Eiriksson went to
Norway and spent the winter with King Olafr Tryggvason.
The following summer the king sent him to Greenland to
introduce Christianity. On that voyage Leifr discovered
Vinland the Good and saved some shipwrecked sailors.